Editor’s Note: The company referenced in the article below “Investing in the Bottom of the Ladder,” by Jody Heymann, demonstrates that for-profit companies can do better by paying and treating their lowest paid employees better. The two companies I’ve been most directly involved in are primarily impacted by their lowest paid workers (WorkPlace Media and Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers). In fact, over 350 of our 400 workers live on the margins. Like Great Little Box, it seems obvious to us that the better your treat your “lowest rung of the ladder” employee, the greater your overall success – financially and societally.

Excerpt: “The companies we studied had in fact increased their profitability by investing in their employees at the bottom of the ladder.”